MIAMI OPEN PRESENTED BY ITAú

March 28, 2022

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

T. FRITZ/T. Paul

7-6, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Can you just talk about how you're feeling right now? You are really just playing very well coming off Indian Wells, coming here now. You said you had not done that well here before. What's been different this time around?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, I'm just a better player, I feel like. The past, coming here, I felt I played pretty well here last year, but conditions are also tough. It's windy quite often.

Since we have switched here to these courts away from Key Biscayne, these courts are really, really slow. Conditions are very slow. Sometimes can be tough to get the ball by people.

Biggest difference is just I'm confident and I'm a better tennis player, so I'm winning more matches.

Q. What's it like when you are playing against someone that you are friends with? How is it different from playing against some other random opponent you don't know as well?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, it's just kind of good to get through it. It's definitely not something that I look forward to or I want to do.

It's always tough playing against like a really close friend. Luckily I have a pretty good record when I'm playing against all my friends, but still, it's just like one of those things like I'm really happy it's over with, it's done, I won, I got through it. It's not fun at all playing one of your friends.

Q. What was it like playing in the heat of Miami? Take me through that.

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, today, like, was really not bad at all. I don't know. We got on pretty late. I feel like the sun had already gone down a bit. Nothing, nothing like how brutal it can be out here. Today wasn't really too much of an issue.

Q. What is your relationship? How far back do you guys go? Did you guys play each other when you were like 10 years old? Tell me about your friendship.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, the first time Tommy and I played, we didn't really know each other that well. I think it was boys, 14s, hard courts or something, and I think he actually had a bet with one of the other kids who could win their match faster, because that's kind of the levels we were at at the time.

He was much, much better than me (smiling). He beat me pretty bad. But then when I was about 14 or 15, so like a year or two later, kind of just, I went to Boca to train at USTA, and he was there training. We just became really good friends. Since then we have been really close.

Q. When you're playing someone who is a close friend like that, do you talk before the match, do you talk after the match? Is there any kind of interactions?

TAYLOR FRITZ: No, no, no. How it's always been for me is we are literally friends before the match. Maybe like the joking and all that stuff stops maybe like 10, 15 minutes before the match, right as we are about to go warm up and walk out to the court and go into match mode, but as soon as the match is over it's back to being friends.

Yeah, I mean, I literally invited Tommy to dinner I think the night after we both won our matches, so we knew we'd be playing each other. It's like, Want to go to dinner or something? So it's totally normal.

Q. You went to dinner before playing each other?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Oh, I have done that -- he said yes, and I think he double-booked himself so he didn't come to dinner. We have done it lots of times.

Like before I play Reilly, him and I will eat dinner together the night before. It's just totally normal.

Q. How do you keep that top performance from Indian Wells to Miami?

TAYLOR FRITZ: It's tough, you know. Obviously my body is like feeling it a bit, but I'm kind of just thinking I'm playing good, my confidence is high, so I want to keep riding it out as much as possible instead of the other way you can go, which is kind of being satisfied and being, Oh, I did really well this week, it's okay if I don't do so well the next week.

I kind of just kept telling myself to not be satisfied with doing well in Indian Wells. I want to do well here.

Yeah, I don't know. I kind of just want to ride out this confidence and the good tennis that I'm playing and just keep it going.

Q. If you got championship from Miami Open, will you still go into Houston to play the 250 event?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Who knows? I would really want to play Houston, but I have no idea how my body would feel if I were to go really deep here. You know, if I'm breaking down and I'm injured and I need time to like recover, then I probably have to pull out. If I'm feeling good and feeling healthy and my body is allowing it, then of course I'll go play.

Not really going to think about that. I definitely wasn't thinking during Indian Wells about winning the tournament, so I'm not going to do that here either.

Q. I will tell you that this guy played against you in high school.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Oh, yeah? Yep.

Q. Really? You know each other?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Oh, I do, come on, come on.

Q. How has the transition from Indian Wells gone coming down to here? How did the ankle feel today?

TAYLOR FRITZ: The ankle, it honestly felt a little bit worse than it did in the last match. From Indian Wells it's like way, way better.

But I have this like little, like, it clicks almost when I'm serving. Didn't have it in the last match. Had it in this match. Aside from the serve, though, it's like totally fine moving around and stuff. I feel like I'm moving well.

The transition is tough. Obviously after winning Indian Wells I was super busy with a lot of obligations and press, and I was probably more stressed to do nontennis stuff before this tournament started than I have like ever been before.

So I'm really happy that I'm able to kind of like get myself into the tournament, win a couple of matches, and now it just feels like more normal, like I have kind of gotten over the hump of, I don't know, all the stuff I had to do in between tournaments.

Q. Do you feel more pressure when you have won a tournament like you did Indian Wells? Now you come here. Do you think there is different expectations for you?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Maybe people have different expectations for me, but, like, no, like why would I be nervous? I just won Indian Wells. I don't really care how I do. I mean, I don't care what happens this week.

It's all positives, you know. Like obviously I'm going to try my absolute hardest. Like I said, I want to ride out this confidence. Also, like I said before, I went into Indian Wells not expecting to win the tournament, so, you know, I didn't really think about winning the tournament until like I had match point in the final.

So I'm approaching this one the same way. I don't expect to win the tournament, but I take it one match at a time, and you never know.